The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : UPA Government has failed on all fronts, says Venkaiah Naidu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 13, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

UPA Government has failed on all fronts, says Venkaiah Naidu

Staff Reporter

`Congress will fare badly in three of the five States going to polls'

GENIALITY: H.N. Ananth Kumar, MP, and Minister for Revenue Jagadish Shettar greeting BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu and party in charge for State Thawar Chand Gehlot (left) at a meeting of party leaders in Bangalore on Sunday. — Photo: V. Sreeni vasa Murthy

BANGALORE: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government had proved to be a "failure" on all fronts, and was placing itself in an increasingly vulnerable position by pursuing a blatant vote-bank politics, the former BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu said here on Sunday.

He told presspersons after a two-day deliberations with the BJP Ministers and with party office-bearers and cadre that the Congress would badly in three of the five States going to the polls- Assam, Pondicherry and Kerala. The other two States being Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Saying the Congress was now in self-destruct mode, Mr. Naidu said discussions with the party over the past few days had centred around how that could be turned into opportunity for the BJP. To enthuse the party cadre, he said: "the BJP can only improve. It has very little or no presence in these States, and whatever we do, the party can only improve its position."

"The UPA Government is a coalition of compulsions, and not convictions," Mr. Naidu said. Already the Congress is convulsed by the consequences of its decisions taken under compulsions- the allies are getting restive, and the coalition might soon disintegrate, Mr. Naidu said.

All parties in the UPA had become increasingly disenchanted with the Congress and after the elections in the five States, there would be a big question mark over the stability of the UPA, Mr Naidu said.

Rashtriya Ekta Yatra

Since the UPA had endangered national unity, encouraged divisive forces and was now practising vote-bank politics, the BJP had announced a Rashtriya Ekta Yatra from April 6 to May 9.

The yatra would commence from two places simultaneously. The former Deputy Prime Minister and L.K. Advani would begin the yatra from Dwaraka, while the party President Rajnath Singh would start it from Puri.

Both would criss-cross the nation during the month-long yatra, which would however, avoid the five States where polls were due, Mr. Naidu said.

The issues to be focussed were not related to elections, but were a matter of national security.

The BJP was particularly incensed over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's talk of self-rule in Kashmir, proposals for reservation in IITs and IIMs, and replacing the Foreigners' Act with the "infamous" Illegal Migrants' Determination Act to be applicable to the entire country.

"This Act was directed by the Supreme Court to be scrapped as it was being applied in Assam, and now the UPA wants to impose it on the nation," Mr. Naidu said.

The Muslim head-count in the Army and a circular from the Prime Minister's office to all deputy commissioners and collectors seeking the number of Muslims in Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies were the other issues of national significance, he said.

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